Never has a gaming franchise embraced the internet meme culture more than Borderlands has. Borderlands games are basically 3D open-world meme heavens with each successive game becoming crazier than the last. For that matter, Borderlands 3 is filled to the brim with lots of memes and meme-able materials—even its advertising and breaking news are also memes.
Of course, in true internet pop-culture spirit, making a meme for a game made out of memes is a must and many people have taken to the internet to create something only the Borderlands 3 community can giggle at. These are 10 memes which only those who have played the game will understand.
10 GUN-RUNNING, GET IT?
One of the most notable hooks in Gearbox's marketing for Borderlands 3 was the gun with legs. In fact, they were even quite proud of it since it offered quite a refreshing and a rather insane take on the gun-craze of Borderlands. They're usually Tediore guns that are a wild card when they are reloaded and one of them, as you might have guessed grows legs when discarded.
Look for Tediore guns with a "smart" prefix or suffix in their name and you're sure to have fun with them as soon as you reload. They're not just for show either, these babies can even take on badass enemies on their own and will surely provide an unexpected and unlimited ally when you're stuck in a tight spot.
9 FETCH DEAD BODIES, GOOD BOY!
Well, such a compromised is only possible if the wife agrees with cuddling with a cold metal death machine capable of mowing down hapless Maliwan or Children of the Vault baddies. Like dogs, however, you can find yourself getting attached to the Smart Tediore guns especially since you can have an army of them if you keep reloading.
It's like leading your own pack of metallic wolves that will rip and tear into enemies as long as you have ammunition to spare, thank goodness for Tediore. Sadly, not all their guns are cuddly creatures with a mind of their own, some will explode in your face and give birth to even more grenades if you reload to see what they're made of.
8 GUNS, GUNS, AND MORE GUNS!
Seeing as how Borderlands 3 is after the gameplay, not an hour goes by when a mission doesn't shower you with guns. So, that "1 billion weapons" is not exactly far-fetched-- not that anyone can keep count and live long enough to come up with an official tally. It's all thanks to Gearbox's weapon combination algorithm which ensures no two weapons are the same, unless for the epic and legendary loot.
Anything below that and you'll most likely get some trash weapons that you'll probably not use in your entire playthrough. The white, green, and sometimes even blue weapons are just temporary placeholders and each character build will basically boil down to cookie-cutter DPS templates despite the 1-billion guns.
7 SO, WHAT WE HAVE NOW IS JUST A DEMO?
It's well-known consensus in the PC gaming community that Epic Store is the plague, apparently and should be avoided at all costs. Funny enough, it's merely competition for Steam, which is a long-running staple gaming launcher and library for PC games. Comparing the user interface and deals between both launchers, it's easy to see where Epic Store needs improvements.
Hence, a certain percentage of PC players elect to ignore all games that launch exclusively on the Epic Store instead of launching in Steam as well. This brings us to the meme here where some players will even adamantly wait until Borderlands 3's Epic Store exclusivity ends in 2020. Too bad they're not insulated from all the spoilers.
6 NERF GUNS!
Being a class-based game with dozens of end-game META (most effective tactic available) and build combinations, Borderlands 3 is subject to exploitative character templates. Let's just say certain classes have it better than others when it comes to dishing out disgusting amounts of damage that they often get exploited by expert players.
This leads to certain balancing difficulties that the developers must perform nonetheless. You'll most likely see periodic nerfs of buffs in order to iron out certain balancing issues thanks to skill or gun exploits. Sadly, even the innocent and honest players who have no idea they were using advantageous stuff in the game are also affected by this, such is the META cycle in games like Borderlands 3
5 THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM
That headline might sound ridiculous enough to be fake news and it is, on purpose. It's actually satire news from The Hard Times which pokes fun at how the cover artist(s) of the previous Borderlands games have a penchant for using that raider who's about to shoot his head with finger guns. Because of that, we did expect something similar for the third game's cover art.
In reality, what we got was a raider mocking a certain Christian saint who put up its hand in a "three" gesture-- a far cry from the usual style of Borderlands cover arts; it's probably to signify that the developers have gone off the rails and completely loosened their screws in this title. This became more apparent when you play Borderlands 3 and find out that they still kept Claptrap around.
4 WHY YOU GOTTA DO ME LIKE THIS, BABY?
The sad thing for Steam loyalists is that Borderlands 3 was one of the most awaited games of all time and is certainly one of the more popular looter shooter franchises. It's even believed that Borderlands actually started the "looter shooter" sub-genre in RPGs which successfully combined the violent rush of piñata popularized by Diablo games and the high-octane action of first-person shooters (FPS).
Hence, one of the biggest heartbreaks for that certain group of people who chose to support Steam and only Steam alone as a launcher is how Borderlands 3 was an Epic Store exclusive. In fact, it's the only Borderlands game not in Steam right now and how those Steam loyalists feel is perfectly summed up in that anime meme.
3 THE SAME THINGS ARE OUR SPECIALTIES
Borderlands 3 might not have introduced something new to the table, compared to Borderlands 2 but it nevertheless is a welcome game in the franchise. Many reviewers did regard Borderlands 3 as more of the same thing but when has that ever been a bad thing especially if the system still works flawlessly.
There's somehow a story, but it's mostly the characters and the guns you'll be attached to-- sometimes just the guns. After all, you play Borderlands for one thing only, that is to shoot things in a cell-shaded open-world environment and change guns as frequently as you change underwear... assuming you change frequently.
2 SPOILER ALERT
Ever since Borderlands 2, there has always been that one character that manages to annoy everyone else just by being in the game. Back then it was Claptrap (or maybe Handsome Jack for some), in the Pre-Sequel, that would be Claptrap (again) and in the Borderlands 3, it's Claptrap once again, maybe the Calypso twins, and last but not least, Ava.
She's the stowaway monk whom Maya brings into the ship with you, just because. Too bad that decision from Maya cost her something she can never get back and certainly something Hyperion's checkpoints can never remedy. On top of that, she also gets praised even if you did all the heavy lifting. Oh well, that's a Vault Hunter's life for you.
1 IT'S A GUN'S NAME, BY THE WAY
While it's true that guns are a power fantasy, a gun named the Big Succ is definitely something that doesn't appeal to that. It's merely a low-level Vladof rifle whose alternate firing mode is lobbing four grenades at enemies and the side-quest tied to it introduces the players to the joys of utilizing an alt-fire mode.
Why Vladof or Vladof's CEO elected to name the gun like that is a pure comedic mystery. Those CEOs are usually unhinged, just look at what happened to Hyperion's Handsome Jack. Anyway, the Big Succ sucks big time as a low-level weapon and thankfully disappears after you finish the side quest since it's not worth your inventory space. The same can be said for most Vladof guns.